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Solar System Solar System From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Objects in the Solar System The Solar System → by orbit [a] consists of the → by size Sun and the → by discovery date astronomical Categories objects → Round objects gravitationally → moons bound in orbit → minor planets around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. Of the many objects that orbit the Sun, most of the mass is [e] contained within eight relatively solitary planets Planets and dwarf planets of the Solar System. Sizes are to scale, but whose orbits are almost circular and lie within a relative distances from the Sun are not. nearly flat disc called the ecliptic plane. The four smaller inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, also called the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of rock and metal. The four outer planets, the gas giants, are substantially more massive than the terrestrials. The two largest, Jupiter and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium; the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed largely of ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as "ice giants". The Solar System is also home to a number of regions populated by smaller objects. The asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, is similar to the terrestrial planets as it is composed mainly of rock and metal. Beyond Neptune's orbit lie the Kuiper belt and scattered disc; linked populations of trans-Neptunian objects composed mostly of ices such as water, ammonia and methane. Within these populations, five individual objects, Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris, are recognized to be large enough to have been Solar System showing plane of the [e] rounded by their own gravity, and are thus termed dwarf planets. In addition Earth's orbit around the Sun in 3D to thousands of small bodies[e] in those two regions, various other small body view with only Mercury, Venus, populations, such as comets, centaurs and interplanetary dust, freely travel Earth and Mars between regions. Six of the planets and three of the dwarf planets are orbited by natural satellites,[b] usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon. Each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles. The solar wind, a flow of plasma from the Sun, creates a bubble in the interstellar medium known as the heliosphere, which extends out to the edge of the scattered disc. The hypothetical Oort cloud, which acts as the source for long-period comets, may also exist at a distance roughly a thousand times further than the heliosphere. Contents Solar system showing the plane of the 1 Discovery and exploration ecliptic of the Earth's orbit around the 2 Structure Sun in 3D view showing Mercury, 3 Composition Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter 4 Sun 5 Interplanetary medium making one full revolution. Saturn 6 Inner Solar System and Uranus also appear in their own 6.1 Inner planets respective orbits around the Sun 6.1.1 Mercury 6.1.2 Venus 6.1.3 Earth 6.1.4 Mars 6.2 Asteroid belt 6.2.1 Ceres 6.2.2 Asteroid groups 7 Outer Solar System 7.1 Outer planets 7.1.1 Jupiter 7.1.2 Saturn 7.1.3 Uranus 7.1.4 Neptune 7.2 Comets 7.2.1 Centaurs 8 Trans-Neptunian region 8.1 Kuiper belt 8.1.1 Pluto and Charon 8.1.2 Haumea and Makemake 8.2 Scattered disc 8.2.1 Eris 9 Farthest regions 9.1 Heliopause 9.2 Oort cloud 9.2.1 Sedna 9.3 Boundaries 10 Galactic context 10.1 Neighbourhood 11 Formation and evolution 12 Visual summary 13 See also 14 Notes 15 References 16 External links Discovery and exploration Main article: Discovery and exploration of the Solar System For many thousands of years, humanity, with a few notable exceptions, did not recognize the existence of the Solar System. People believed the Earth to be stationary at the centre of the universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved through the sky. Although the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos had speculated on a heliocentric reordering of the cosmos,[1] Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to develop a mathematically predictive heliocentric system.[2] His 17th-century successors, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, developed an understanding of physics that led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that the Earth moves around the Sun and that the planets are governed by the same physical laws that governed the Earth. Additionally, the invention of the telescope led to the discovery of further planets and moons. In more recent times, improvements in the telescope and the use of unmanned spacecraft have enabled the investigation of geological phenomena such as mountains and craters, and seasonal meteorological phenomena such as clouds, dust storms and ice caps on the other planets. Structure The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a main sequence G2 star that contains 99.86 percent of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally.[3] The Sun's four largest orbiting bodies, the gas giants, account for 99 percent of the remaining mass, with Jupiter and Saturn together comprising more than 90 percent.[c] Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. The planets are very close to the ecliptic while comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at significantly greater angles to it.[4][5] All the planets and most other objects orbit the Sun in the same direction that the Sun is rotating (counter-clockwise, as viewed from above the Sun's north pole).[6] There are exceptions, such as Halley's Comet. The overall structure of the charted regions of the Solar System consists of the Sun, four relatively small inner planets surrounded by a belt of rocky asteroids, and four gas giants surrounded by the outer Kuiper belt of icy objects. Astronomers sometimes informally divide this structure into separate regions. The inner Solar System includes the four terrestrial planets and the main asteroid belt. The outer Solar System is beyond the asteroids, including the four gas giant planets.[7] Since the discovery of the Kuiper belt, the outermost parts of the Solar System are considered a distinct region consisting of the objects beyond Neptune.[8] Kepler's laws of planetary motion describe the orbits of objects about the Sun. Following Kepler's laws, each object travels along an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. Objects closer to the Sun (with smaller semi-major axes) travel more quickly, as they are more affected by the Sun's gravity. On an elliptical orbit, a body's distance from the Sun varies over the course of its year. A body's closest approach to the Sun is called its perihelion, while its most distant point from the Sun is called its aphelion. The orbits of the planets are nearly circular, but many comets, asteroids and Kuiper belt objects follow highly elliptical orbits. Due to the vast distances involved, many representations of the Solar System show orbits the same distance apart. In reality, with a few exceptions, the farther a planet or belt is from the Sun, the larger the distance between it and the previous orbit. For example, Venus is approximately 0.33 astronomical units (AU)[d] farther out from the Sun than Mercury, while Saturn is 4.3 AU out from Jupiter, and Neptune lies 10.5 AU out from Uranus. Attempts have been made to determine a relationship between these orbital distances (for example, the Titius–Bode law),[9] but no such theory has been accepted. Most of the planets in the Solar System possess secondary systems of their own, being orbited by planetary objects called natural satellites, or moons (two of which are larger than the planet Mercury), or, in the case of the four gas giants, by planetary The orbits of the bodies in the Solar System to scale (clockwise from rings; thin bands of tiny particles that orbit them in top left) unison. Most of the largest natural satellites are in synchronous rotation, with one face permanently turned toward their parent. Composition The Sun, which comprises nearly all the matter in the Solar System, is composed of roughly 98% hydrogen and helium.[10] Jupiter and Saturn, which comprise nearly all the remaining matter, possess atmospheres composed of roughly 99% of those same elements.[11][12] A composition gradient exists in the Solar System, created by heat and light pressure from the Sun; those objects closer to the Sun, which are more affected by heat and light pressure, are composed of elements with high melting points. Objects farther from the Sun are composed largely of materials with lower melting points.[13] The boundary in the Solar System beyond which those volatile substances could condense is known as the frost line, and it lies at roughly 4 AU from the Sun.[14] The objects of the inner Solar System are composed mostly of rock,[15] the collective name for compounds with high melting points, such as silicates, iron or nickel, that remained solid under almost all conditions in the protoplanetary nebula.[16] Jupiter and Saturn are composed mainly of gases, the astronomical term for materials with extremely low melting points and high vapor pressure such as molecular hydrogen, helium, and neon, which were always in the gaseous phase in the nebula.[16] Ices, like water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide,[15] have melting points up to a few hundred kelvins, while their phase depends on the ambient pressure and temperature.[16] They can be found as ices, liquids, or gases in various places in the Solar System, while in the nebula they were either in the solid or gaseous phase.[16] Icy substances comprise the majority of the satellites of the giant planets, as well as most of Uranus and Neptune (the so-called "ice giants") and the numerous small objects that lie beyond Neptune's orbit.[15][17] Together, gases and ices are referred to as volatiles.[18] Sun Main article: Sun The Sun is the Solar System's star, and by far its chief component.
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